The Proactive Employer

An employee handbook is the most important communication tool between an employer and its workforce. It’s a statement of the policies of the business and how the business is to be conducted. A well-written handbook sets forth the expectations for employees and describes what they can expect from the employer. An employee handbook should describe the company’s legal obligations as an employer, and the employees’ rights. It’s important that the handbook is clear and as unambiguous as possible. Misunderstandings or misstatements can create legal liabilities for the employer. In legal disputes, courts have considered an employee handbook to be a contractual obligation, so it’s important to word it carefully. Today, we’ll be talking about employee handbooks with John Bagyi. Mr. Bagyi is an attorney in the Albany, New York office of Bond, Schoeneck and King. He counsels and represents employers of all types and sizes in a variety of labor and employment related context, including workplace investigations, policy development and review, wage and hour and EEO compliance, union issues, proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, the Division of Human Rights and the EEOC, and employment litigation in federal and state courts. He also provides a broad range of employment law and human resource training to executives, managers, supervisors and employees. Mr. Bagyi has written extensively on labor and employment law and is a frequent speaker at national, state and local conferences, including the 2008 National SHRM Conference. Since 2005, he has served as General Counsel to the New York State Society for Human Resource Management.

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As I’ve mentioned many times before, the Department of Labor is taking a far more aggressive stance, increasing enforcement efforts, prosecuting more aggressively, and seeking larger recoveries from employers. Experts are predicting a surge in wage and hour enforcement efforts. I’ve spoken with several employment attorneys about this, and all of them have indicated that wage and hour issues are the nation’s fastest growing type of litigation. One attorney said that “multi-plaintiff wage and hour lawsuits pose the greatest employment litigation threat to American businesses today."

Now more than ever, it’s essential that employers have accurate and precise records of hours worked. Today we’ll be speaking with an expert in time and attendance. Our guest is Jose Gaona, the Executive Vice President of Operations for Qqest. Mr. Gaona has extensive experience in the time and attendance space. He served 16 years with Ceridian Employer Services where he managed their time and attendance product line.

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Our guest for this installment is Philip Miles, an attorney with McQuaide Blasko. We discuss religious discrimination and the various forms it takes, including employment decisions, harassment, accommodation of beliefs and practices, and grooming and dress code policies. We also discuss a recent court decision involving religious discrimination-EEOC v. GeoGroup. Mr. Miles will also offer some practical suggestions for employers on how to keep their workplaces free from religious discrimination.

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Our guest for this installment is Mark Dawson, President of JobsFreeForAll. We discuss the recruiting and hiring situation in Hawaii and challenges unique to the islands. We talk about the demographics of Hawaii and how this leads to different types of employment discrimination. We also discuss "English-Only" policies and how they are - and aren't - being used. Finally, we find out if Hawaii really is a recruiter's paradise.

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In this installment, we discuss the OFCCP's recent directives on accessibility issues and what it means for recruiters and employers with our guest Sheridan Walker. Ms. Walker is the President of HirePotential, a leading national consulting and staffing firm delivering end-to-end services to corporations, assisting them with OFCCP compliance, employment, accommodations, recruitment and retention of the untapped workforce. She is an expert in the disability field with 25 years of broad-based experience. Sheridan will provide some tips for employers on OFCCP compliance, give some concrete suggestions on ATS (applicant tracking) and website accessibility, and tell us how to tap into a very talented pool of workers that you may be overlooking.

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In this installment, we discuss family responsibility discrimination. We outline some examples of family responsibility discrimination, and I provide a five-point checklist that employers can use to minimize the potential of family responsibility discrimination in the workplace.

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In this installment, we discuss how employers can protect their proactive analyses. Our guest for this installment is Paul Secunda, Associate Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School. We talk about a recent privilege issue in the news involving a report prepared on behalf of Wal-Mart, what the attorney-client privilege is and how employers can invoke it, and Paul provides some practical suggestions on how to keep your analyses confidential.

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